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indian Ocean : Oz - Cape town advice ?

I am considering a late-seson thrash across the back half of Pacific and mid/southern Indian ocean westbound from Tahiti mid sept to arrive Cape Town praps early mid Nov and wonder if anyone else had done the same? Well i mean obviously they have but are they on ybw? I'm really looking for first hand and/or vaguely knowledgeable info whilst i am off the boat and without pilot books such as Cornell etc to tell me er how far it is and it's gonna be godawful weather etc, but it's fine for others to throw in ideas, or even just casually banjax the thread, should be on another forum and so on, general abuse, or even things like what bit of the solent is that? or anything to keep the thread a bit highish for a little while. I can usually plan at 1,000nm per week and i suppose it mite be um bout 9000nm? ish.

Well, I haven't done the trip myself so the only first hand advice I can give you is don't be off Cape Town in April in the worst storm for twenty years because I tried that and it hurts.

I consulted Cornell and he says you need to be through the Torres Straight before the start of September. (I wonder why they named such as important piece of water after a rather crappy Chelsea striker?) Anyway, you should be OK with the ITCZ which will be north of you at that time of the year but you should really be out of the South Indian ocean before the beginning of December because of cyclone risk, so you need to be past Mauritius by end of October. Probably shouldn't try to go round the cape until January, so you'll have plenty of time in Durbs and you could go and visit the Kruger Park while you're waiting.
You'll be in the SE trades for much of the time, hopefully.
It's a long way.
Someone with first hand knowledge will be along shortly to correct the above.

PS You may be a couple of thousand short in your estimate of distance. Using measure in OCPN gives more like 10500, clearly not great circle - straight lines with no allowance for current or (little) island/shoal routing etc

Done Darwin to Red Sea, but via Chagos, which was also the stop off for boats heading for Cape Town. Left Darwin in August, and picked the tail of a cyclone between Cocos Keeling and Chagos. Most of the passage from Darwin to Chagos was F6+ so fast and with a best days run of 169 miles in a 40 yo 33 foot timber boat.

You can get a SW swell running up the Southern Ocean mixing with the trade wind sea which makes it hard work on autopilots. We used a vane gear which coped OK. rode out F9-10 under bare poles for half a day before it dropped back down to 7-8s. Not much in the way of provisions anywhere between Darwin and destination, although potable water in tanks ashore at all the islands.

I have followed their blog for the past five years or so and they have very recently passed through Cape Town. You will have to watch the currents tides and weather when you get into the Agulhas Current. I cannot shout that loud enough. Be very careful in this sea area.

It makes the standing water at "Bridge" at The Needles on a Spring Tide, during a gale look like flat bath water!!

Oz to Bali and then Cocos Keeling was simple but little wind. Cocos Keeling to Mauritius was thoroughly miserable with the first 10 days of continual squalls, grey skies and big beam seas. Must have got a bit better after that as I don't remember the rest.

Mauritius to Richards Bay, SA, started off nice then around the southern tip of Madagascar turned nasty (those within 100nm of Madagascar had strong currents against)

Then we got to the Agulhas current... Very, very quick with 5 knots of current underneath and 30-40 knots behind. Extremely pleased to make Richards Bay in one piece.

The trip from there to Cape Town was ok. Just need to take careful note of the weather and make sure you are in port when the sw winds come through every few days. Do not take any chance with these weather systems. If you do, you'll get very badly beaten up - if you are lucky - and you'll die if you are unlucky.

Thanks and supplementary question

Wow, fab response, thanks everyone, wasn't quite sure if this wd be a suitable asking place and kerpow, it definitely was.

I am sorta thinking that this is something of a stretch - too much so, possibly - identifiable as such by mild thoughts of perhaps singlehanding a fair bit of it because i won't feel it easily "sellable" to potential crew - get on the boat, sail sail sail, stop for food a bit, but mainly, sail the boat non-stop - equivalent of 4 transats at a time of year when really, setting off somewhat earlier might have been a better idea. Not much flexibility waiting for wx either - 10k nm is likely 10weeks, really going for it, and that still means arrive Cape Town late Nov.

The supplementary question concerns plan B - hanging around in NZ .... does anyone know of lovely cheap places to "park up" and leave a boat in Northern NZ or wherever, Sw Pacific ish, over the (externally, Pacific) cyclone season Dec-April ish

You don't need to know the other option PLan C (but it's always nice to have the full sp, and deservedly so when so many pitch in...) which is to get the boat shipped to Cape Town from NZ. Yeah, very Cheaty, (hence plan C ?) but I have realised that I don't mind - I can do the whole circumnav gig properly another time ... and am even a bit wary of having "already done" a rtw trip just yet - I'd be fine to keep a circumnav "on the to-do list" so to speak. Reading between the lines from others who have (successfully) done a fast sub-18month WARC or WARC-style circumnav, i sorta think they feel that they feel yeah, they did it ... but some also sorta wish they had done it differently.... and yet going round again of course...wdn't quite have that same ultimate reward. No big deal, but yerknow.